[time-nuts] Gaia Satellites time challenge

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

"GAIA" is the successor satellite to the improbably successfull
Hipparcos satellite which gave us the most precise star-catelog we
have ever had.

The most recent newsletter from the data processing consortium
has a short overview of their time-keeping challenge:  Put a Rb
at L2, synchronize (relativistically) to 1microsecond.

	http://www.rssd.esa.int/SA/GAIA/docs/DPAC/web/DPAC_NL_009.pdf

Poul-Henning

PS:

Amongst many other interesting features, GAIA will sport a focal
plane covered with a half sqaremeter of CCDs, and the entire optical
bench, including mirors, is built out of SiC for thermal performance:

	http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=GAIA&page=picture_of_the_week&pow=119


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